


First Impressions

by peternureyev



Series: Ketterdam High [1]
Category: Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Day of School, Gen, Jesper is already flirting, School, This comes before the other fics, Wylan-centric (unsurprisingly)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 23:12:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6303895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peternureyev/pseuds/peternureyev
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The school was just as terrifying as Wylan had anticipated. The corridors were packed with laughing, screaming and hugging students. It was a battle to follow the map he’d been given, pushing his way up the stairs and cringing past the older students leaning on walls. After what felt like way too long, he finally found his destination. The sign on the class door read ‘DRGS’ and Wylan triple checked the map to make sure it was the room he’d been allocated to.</p><p>[Comes before Symphony and Goddamn It, Brekker]</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> This might help you understand this series a bit better!  
> This verse is just kind of set in an alternate universe entirely. I will probably use British currency and school years because that’s what I’m used to.  
> Wylan, Jesper, Kaz and Inej are in Year 12. (I made Wylan a year older because otherwise the story doesn’t work!) Nina and Matthias are in Year 13 (their last school year). Hope this made sense!
> 
> Also, this fic will probably have three chapters. And it takes place before both Symphony and Goddamn It, Brekker.

It was a cold morning. The mist hung low over the buildings, draping them in mystery and making the intimidating grey blocks seem three times as large, towering over the lone boy standing at the old iron wrought gates. Ketterdam High was an old school, outdating most of the building in what was an old city. But it had recently been renovated, and the grounds were a mix of classical brick architecture and metallic, glassy blocks. To Wylan Van Eck, standing at the gates and staring wide eyed at the fog shrouded shapes, it looked like hell.

Wylan gulped. He was going to have to face it at some point; it wasn’t like he could stand outside the gates, quivering with fear, for the rest of the day. _You could have just been homeschooled. If only you’d just passed that exam. But you didn’t._ It sounded suspiciously like his father, gloating over Wylan’s pathetic grades. _None of the tutors want you. Of course they don’t. You’re a disappointment. It’s a good thing Ketterdam can take you, or I don’t know what we’d do with you._ It had sounded like a threat, spat from across his father’s gleaming, polished desk. Wylan had glimpsed his reflection in it. Miserable, tired, tears quickly forming in the corner of his eyes. _You’re a disappointment._ And then Jan Van Eck had left the room, leaving his son staring down at the pale reflection of himself.

Running a hand through his golden curls, Wylan pushed the gate open. He might never gain his father’s approval, but he could try and make a good impression on his teachers by not turning up late on the first day (as if that would make any difference).

—

The school was just as terrifying as Wylan had anticipated. The corridors were packed with laughing, screaming and hugging students. It was a battle to follow the map he’d been given, pushing his way up the stairs and cringing past the older students leaning on walls. After what felt like way too long, he finally found his destination. The sign on the class door read ‘DRGS’ and Wylan triple checked the map to make sure it was the room he’d been allocated to. Heart beating faster than could possibly be healthy, Wylan pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Six rows of paired desks stared back at him. Most of them were full, some weren't, but Wylan spotted a lone desk sitting next to a window. He sat down at the chair and gazed at his hands.

The desk was covered in pen and scratched words. Wylan traced his fingers over then, trying to ignore the fact that his heartbeat was drowning out even his own thoughts. C, a, l.... Looking at the scrawl scraped into the desk made Wylan's eyes and chest hurt. He chose instead to stare at the number just below that particular scribble with nervous intensity.  
"Not thinking of calling that number are you?" Wylan snapped his head up to come eye to eye with a boy leaning towards him. Lean and dark skinned with a teasing grin that split his face. "Because trust me, you can get far better offers here than her. Far better."  
It took Wylan a second to work out what the boy meant. “I, uh…” he felt the blush creep over his cheeks and debated jumping out of the window and running as far away from this school as he could. But the boy had already dashed off to join his friends, casting a last grin back at Wylan. _Good first impression. You could say that._

Their class tutor - Professor Haskell - was an old man who had no luck at keeping a gang of unruly 16 and 17 year olds under check. The classroom quietened only for a minute when he entered the room before reverting to the state of loud chattering that was beginning to make Wylan’s ears ring. And then, as if deliberately contributing to the chaos of Room DRGS, the bell went off, shrill and vibrating. The students all jumped up and ran for the door. The boy who’d interupted him earlier bumped into his shoulder and didn’t apologise. Wylan flushed and, trying to ignore the people around him, walked up to the teacher.  
“Good morning, sir. I…I’m new here and I was wondering where I should go for my first lesson.”  
Professor Haskell gave him a look that said he wasn’t used to being referred to as ‘sir’. “Oh yes. You’re the Van Eck boy, aren’t you? What is it, William?”  
“Wylan.” he replied quietly.  
“And you have this…thing?”  
Wylan nodded, counting to ten over and over in his head. He could feel his hand shaking.  
Haskell didn’t say anything else, just handed over a timetable. As he left the room, Wylan could feel the old teacher’s steely gaze on his back.

 

—

 

Wylan stared at the floor. _You’ve been here, what, half an hour and you’re already lost? Typical,_ his father’s voice teased. Tears burned the back of his eyelids.

“Hey!” came a voice from behind him. Pulling himself together, Wylan spun round to see a plump girl with perfectly curled light brown hair that rested on the shoulders of her cropped red sweater. “Are you lost? I’m Nina Zenik and I can probably help you find your way around.”  
“Wylan,” smiled the curly haired boy, sticking out a hand. Nina gave him a odd look but then shook it. “Yeah, I’m a little lost to be honest. It’s…a hard place to find your way around.”  
Nina grinned. “I know the feeling, trust me. I transferred here a year back from Ravka and I still don’t know all the odd little nooks and crannies of this place.”  
“Yes, we know, everything’s better in the Little Palace. You’re a stuck record, Zenik.”  
Wylan peered over Nina’s shoulder to see the brown skinned boy from earlier sail past, having paused his animated discussion with another student only to stick out his tongue and make the snarky remark.  
“Nice to know you appreciate me, Jesper,” Nina quipped back.  
So his name was Jesper. The name felt nice on Wylan’s tongue. Nina continued talking but Wylan spared a final glance at the boy’s receding back. _Jesper._

“So how are you finding it here?” Nina asked as she walked with Wylan to his lesson. She was a year above him, but Wylan was warming up to the girl quicker than he’d expected. He’d already discovered that she’d suffered a messy breakup a couple of months ago, and missed her boyfriend, that she’d always wanted to be in the army but thought the lifestyle was too hard for her, and that she’d transferred from Ravka a year ago and although she’d easily made friends, she still missed her old school. “People think that Ravka kids are posh and pretentious, but honestly, most of us are not. We…they might have stupid traditions but most of them are genuinely kind people. And the rooms are really nice.” Wylan didn’t mention that he was probably exactly what Nina would class as ‘posh and pretentious’. When he was younger, his father had wanted him to get into the prestigious private school, but that idea had gone down the drain with most of his father’s expectations.

They seemed to reach his first classroom far too fast. Nina smiled as he pushed open the door, promising to sit with him at lunch if she could escape her studying. And then, as the teacher called his name and pointed to a desk, Wylan Van Eck was a student at Ketterdam High.

**Author's Note:**

> More stuff happens. I promise.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr wylaneck.tumblr.com and maybe enter my blog awards: wylaneck.tumblr.com/post/141358274808


End file.
